Well, Monday morning I took both girls to the pediatrician for their 2 month and 3 year check-ups:
- Marissa weighs 27 lbs and is exactly 3 feet tall. She did extremely well for the doctor, and only had a minor meltdown when she wanted a granola bar from my purse. She's still 100% accident free, too!
- Arianna weighs 10 lbs 12 oz and is 23 inches long. This is HUGE compared to Marissa! Marissa never made it out of the 25th percentile. Arianna's weight (and head) are in the 50th and her length is the 90th! I am just so shocked, I thought we'd have another tiny baby like Marissa was. There is still that possibility, especially since Marissa dropped her percentile down to 5th for a while. But I just can't believe it! She's in 3 month clothes already, which works nicely since most of Marissa's summer clothes were 3 months. We might be in trouble in the fall though! Lol.
- Poor Arianna got a bunch of shots at the end of her check-up. She cried pretty hard of course, but calmed right down and went to sleep after I nursed her. She slept for a while once we got home, but as I put Marissa down for her nap, Arianna turned hysterical. She cried SO hard, for quite a long time. I nursed her almost constantly, but even that didn't calm her down, as she just kept crying while she tried to nurse! It was just plain awful, so I finally gave her some Tylenol (dr said it was ok) and she finally took a long nap. After her nap, even after the Tylenol wore off, she was completely fine, acting like herself again! But PHEW those were a long few hours!
Wednday was Marissa's 3rd birthday and she threw up Tuesday-Wednesday 
It was so sad to watch, and she kept saying over and over "It's no fun being sick!" During her short sickness, she watched Monster's, Inc like 3 times! She loves that movie! Poor girl - I had big plans for her birthday, but they'll had to wait. I was gonna take her out to lunch to use her free Sonic meal (online birthday coupon) and then for ice cream to use her free Baskin Robbins online birthday coupon! (I love freebies - anyone else get free grilled chicken from KFC on Monday?) We did actually get the ice cream, since she was fine all day. Hopefully this was the end of it, because we have lots bigger plans for this weekend! Dan's parents are coming for the weekend, and we (and by "we" I mean all the men) are going to assemble her swing set in the backyard! She has no idea she's getting one, and she keeps saying she wants to go slide on our neighbors'! I can't wait to see her reaction.
This past weekend, I finally finished painting the entry way in our house. Last May, I painted our living/dining/kitchen a beautiful springy bright-ish lime-ish green (I think I posted pictures back then if you desperately want to see it - lol). Well, the Friday after I painted, I found out I was pregnant - so no more painting for me! But I had tested colors in the entry way, since I had plans to paint that too. So there has been green streaks on the white wall right by our front door for almost a year! Unfortunately, I picked THE HOTTEST weekend ever (80+) plus I had a horrible cold. It was really hard work, and I'm still quite sore. But I'm so glad it's finally done. It created a huge mess in our entry way and living room from moving all the stuff out of the way. But it's nice to finally get things re-organized (you know how things just get worse and worse and it's just easier to start over!). I can't wait to finally put stuff up on the walls in the entry way (I'd been putting it off since I knew I'd be painting eventually) and ONLY use the mudroom for a mudroom!
Well, I have TONS of stuff to do for this weekend. Bye!
Once again, it seems like the only time I have to post is Wednesday night. I started writing this while watching Idol (LOVE Adam!), but I thought I'd multi-task, then didn't get around to actually posting it (with a few edits) til today:
- Saturday we went to Jungle Jim's and Ikea for most of the day. Dan wanted to show me Jungle Jim's and we needed a stool from Ikea so Marissa could reach the sink upstairs and downstairs. I put Marissa in a pull-up, just because I wasn't sure how she'd do. But she stayed dry all day, and we used public bathrooms for the first time. UGH! She wasn't freaked out at all (although I was - GERMS!), and even survived "falling in" once! I almost had a heart attack because EWWWWWWWWWWWW, but I was so proud of her. She's been in underwear all week, and hasn't had ANY accidents at all! I am still in shock at how easy that was, and how fast it happened!
- Monday night we all went to get groceries together. Marissa had to go the second we got in the store - of course. The bathrooms there were SO NASTY! But it went fine. I just don't like going in all these public bathrooms!
- Tuesday we went to my friend Susan's house so we could chat and Marissa could play with her daughter, Ingrid (just turned 3). We all had a good time. The girls are playing so cute together lately, and starting to have actual conversations that are just so funny. Lol.
- Wednesday I took both girls with me to get Marissa's 3-year pictures taken at Olan Mills. I was kind of disappointed because the main reason we go there is because the lady that takes the pictures is amazing with kids, and today she was training some new guy. But we did end up with several great pictures - and it's always so hard to pick just one! Marissa said she had to go potty while we were taking pictures, but she was able to wait until we were done - which is great that she can wait! Marissa was a perfect angel the whole time though. The guy (and lady) arranged her and she followed everything little thing they said. It had to be the easiest 3-year old photo shoot they've ever done. Lol. She acted like it was her whole goal in life to make them happy!
- The only negative is that I woke up this Wednesday with an awful-on-fire throat, icky nose, and a pounding headache, and it's only gotten worse since then! It's no fun to be the sole caregiver of 2 kids when you're feeling miserable! If only Marissa would understand that it hurts to talk - that girl never stops! Lol.
Well, wow. Arianna is already 1.5 months old! I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last! It's a lot harder to find computer time these days, especially since the computer is in the basement. I think bullets always work best when I have tons to catch up on!- I am in love. I want one for both girls. If only...
- My brother Jeff, and his girlfriend Jenna were here for Easter weekend! It was lots of fun, and they both had tons of energy to play with Marissa. Despite stupid van troubles, it was a great weekend, and it was nice to spend time with both of them.
- Part of the reason I haven't posted in so long is Dan was in Texas for work alllllllll week - Sunday afternoon til late Friday night. I'm always over-paranoid, so I didn't want to write anything about it til he was home! It was the longest week of my life! Other than water leaking into our basement Saturday night before he left, the plumber cutting into the ceiling in the basement to fix it Monday morning, and the tornado sighting 5 minutes away from our house Sunday night, it was uneventful - lol. It was tough to have NO breaks all week, and I couldn't watch any of my crime shows after Marissa's bedtime because crime shows scare the crap out of me when Dan's gone. But it's sooooo nice to have him back!
- Arianna is still the best sleeper ever. Every night, midnight til 6, 7, 8, or even 9am (today!) she sleeps straight through. And every afternoon she sleeps from 2-6 (actually, it's 6:30 and she's still sleeping now!). She takes little cat-naps throughout the morning, and is still nursing almost every hour when she's awake. But I refuse to change anything about our routine because I love my sleep! She is smiling all the time now, and coo-ing too. She especially loves to watch Marissa, and Marissa loves to try to make her smile.
- I decided to make a huge effort to potty train Marissa last week. Her birthday is in a few weeks, and I knew she was ready - I just wasn't ready! So instead of going straight to underwear, I decided pull-ups would be less stress for me, which might help her. She only had one accident all week! I'm so proud of her, and she's so excited about it too. She already goes on her own without me having to remind her at all. She has had no trouble pooping on the potty either, and I had been expecting that to be more difficult from what other people have told me. But we were out and about all day yesterday, and she even went in two public bathrooms! She did great, but I was grossed out! She did fall in once, but I tried to laugh it off instead of freaking out. Lol. She's been in undies a lot already, and I think we don't even need to use pull ups during the day at all! She's even been dry after naps, but I'm not ready to risk undies then yet. I'm just so shocked and excited at how easy it was. I guess she was just really ready, since we waited so long. It's so nice that we don't have to buy tons of diapers for her anymore (just for bedtime). (By the way, totally not fair how dads mostly get out of potty training!
) - I guess that's about it. All of a sudden I'm obsessed with crafty blogs! That's another thing that has kept me from posting. Since I sewed my nursing cover, I made a drawstring bag from the scraps, and hemmed two pairs of dress pants. I keep finding gorgeous fabric that I NEED, I just don't know what to make with it, and I'm not all that great at making anything anyways! Dan's dress pants that I hemmed - there is a safety pin permanently embedded in the hem. I sewed it in, and didn't even realize it! So I'm definitely no Martha Stewart, but it's fun!
- Guess that's all! Both of my daughters are sleeping, so I'm going to take advantage of this quiet time!
- Last Thursday or Friday, Arianna started smiling - at 1 month plus a few days.
- She is also starting to coo and gargle - lol. Marissa thinks it's so great that she is "talking" already.
- Arianna likes to roll onto her side, especially to sleep.
- She sleeps like a baby, the good way. She takes a 5+ (straight) hour nap every afternoon, and sleeps straight through every night starting around midnight, ending around 7, 8, or 9am (except of course last night she woke up at 4 to eat, but when right back to sleep)
- Other than her wonderful sleeping chunks, she is very awake and alert the rest of the day. She takes little catnaps after most nursing sessions, and is happy as a clam between them.
- She nurses about every hour when she's awake, to make up for all her awesome sleeping chunks.
- Marissa and Arianna take their nap at the same time, mainly because I can tell Arianna when to take her big nap - I just swaddle her up tight, nurse her, and she's out for a while! That also works for bedtime, though it obviously takes longer. I'd rather go to sleep way before midnight (but I will NOT complain!).
- Marissa is super dramatic these days. I got ready to give her a bath the other night, and Arianna's tub was still in the big tub. Marissa dramatically said "Oh my word-y gosh, Mommy! We are in big trouble now! This is a job!" (That last phrase doesn't even make sense, but I thought it was hilarious!)
- Marissa is definitely ready for potty-training! In the mall last week, she made us stop and wait everytime she had to pee in her diaper. Lol. I feel awful for waiting this long. As soon as I feel like I could actually get up and help her at a moment's notice, we'll start. Pretty much that means we have to wait until Arianna's not nursing literally every hour. Lol.
- Arianna's poop schedule is driving me crazy. LOL. She had been waiting a few days in between, so last weekend I thought I was safe when I went away for a night to visit college friends. But she had a big one while we were all in the movie theater (I changed her on my lap - don't worry, we were the only ones in there!) and then a HUGE explosion at the mall (I changed her in a dressing room at Motherhood Maternity because I had been nursing her when it happened - it was all over her clothes, and I didn't have anything extra for her to wear, or any bag to put the outfit in, so I begged them for a Motherhood bag, and she went out to the car in just her diaper - all cozy in her car seat blanket/cover). The funny part is her poops smell like really buttery popcorn, which is so weird (especially in the movie theater), but makes them not nearly as gross as they could be - lol.
- I had so much fun away for 24 hours! I got to meet Nicole's cute baby girl, and we all spent hours talking - up til 5:30am! Arianna woke up at 8:30, I nursed her, and then she slept til 11:30 and so did I! It was so nice to see my college friends, and spend some quality (QUIET) time by myself in the car driving there (Arianna slept the whole drive).
- Last night we went to Olan Mills to get family pictures taken. The lady there is always amazing at getting Marissa to smile her real smile. Our appointment was at 6, and when we got there at 5:55 she was still in the middle of a family of 6 (with 4 little kids). Then she had to show them their pictures, then there was another family of 4 boys next. They had double booked the 6:00 time slot! Dan ended up taking Marissa to get something to eat (we were going to eat after we got home), and we didn't end up getting home until 8pm! Ridiculous! But we got some awesome pictures and I'm so excited to pick them up in a few weeks! It was unfortunately worth the wait!
- It's naptime for the girls now, so I'm getting off here for my alone time!
